CA Miscellaneous
by Astarael00
Summary: Drabbles. One shots. I have no idea what they are until I'm done, and by then it's far too late. This is to be a dumping ground for random CA fics. 1sent halted. DDs finished. Requests closed.
1. File 1

(A/N) Because my imagination was stunted by an early encounter with the ground (and a generally practical, logical outlook), most of these will be the result of a prompt or quote rather than an idea of my own. I will, of course, include the prompt or quote. If some are the result of random thoughts instead, I'll state that somewhere (so that you know to skip the chapter/fic/whatever).

First up: some expanded 1sentences, also known as 1sentence Drabbles. And yes, that is counterintuitive. Now ask me if I care.

They'll be as close to 100 words as I can make them, but after confining everything to one sentence I'm none too eager to impose strict regulations on my writing. Also, contrary to what it says above, these won't be preceded by the appropriate line from my other fic – after all, there'd be almost as much quoting as writing, and the 1sentences are all easily accessible through my profile anyway.

Disclaimer: If I owned Detective Conan…but that's another story entirely. Let's not go there, shall we?

1sentence Drabbles

#01 – Ring  
It wasn't fair, but then very little was, and who was she to ask for fair after all she'd done? So thought Haibara as she gripped a little piece of plastic and watched the ceremony helplessly. There was nothing she could do now, after all – and more importantly, she'd _wished_ for this, worked so hard for it…and now it had happened, and everyone was happy except her. Life's not-so-little ironies. She snorted and turned to leave, knowing that she would not be missed here.

Then something stopped her. Her hand, clasped tightly as it was around the object in her pocket, was sore and stiff from the exertion. Discovering this as she reached out to open the door, Haibara halted mid-motion and stared at her clenched fist as if she'd never seen it before. Then she sighed, a sound filled with something that was almost regret.

Ran found the ring later.

#02 – Hero  
He'd been there every time she considered quitting, and told her not to.  
He'd been there every time she considered dying, and stopped her.  
He'd been there every time she considered leaving, and made her stay.

Shiho still didn't know why. Even after everything she'd done to Shinichi, he had helped her, saved her, risked his life for hers. And she couldn't even repay him, though certainly the antidote counted for something - but not enough. In fact, "not enough" didn't even begin to cover it.

After all, he'd played hero one last time because she had given it to him.  
He'd played hero one last time because she had taken it.

She'd been there, when he quit living and left her behind.

#03 – Memory  
There had been a huge fight in the lab, as evidenced by the absolute ruin they'd made of the room. It was the first and only time the two had ever fought physically, and it was to be the last.

She was bigger than him, by a little bit. According to the rules of child warfare, this meant she should win. And win she did – she kept her prize, attained her goal. But she lost something in the process, a something that didn't _want_ to be lost, but that she had assumed would want to lose her. She was wrong.

Conan had thrown the pill away, choosing to remember.

#04 – Box  
She had been a bird, not an alcohol, in that Organization. They had shut her in a concrete-walled cage, clipped her wings by threatening to 'clip' her sister's life, and forced her to sing. But then, "song" was much too nice a name for what they had made her produce. Haibara ought to know – not only was she the creator of the abomination, she had experienced it first hand.

Now she lived on the opposite side of the coin. Instead of being forced to make a drug, she had been asked to make an antidote. Instead of being shut in, she shut herself in. Instead of living in a cage, she lived in a box.

#05 – Run  
He charged headlong toward the roof, praying he wasn't too late. Agasa had reported that several gunshots were fired before the mike cut off – any one of those could have killed her.

And yet even through the blind pan-erm, worry, Conan found the time to wonder ruefully why he was running yet again. It seemed that ever since he (and, consequently, his legs) had been shrunk, he'd spent most of his time running. And being late anyway.

_At least_ _when I was still Kudo Shinichi, _he thought with a grimace, _I was _fashionably_ late._

But further thought was cut off by his arrival at the roof, where he found to his immense relief that, for once, he had not been running towards a body and a crime.

#06 – Hurricane  
The Detective Boys had come to visit Agasa's house while the Professor was out, so it fell to Conan and Haibara to keep them occupied. The basement was off-limits, of course, as was the Professor's workroom and Haibara's bedroom ("You don't sleep in the lab?" Conan had asked her once, teasing – her scathing reply had taken a year off his life).

Every other place in the house was free game, as were the immediate surroundings of the house. This was unfortunate for our two favorite teenagers-under-ten, because it meant that hide-and-seek was an obvious choice for a pastime. And, of course, it meant that Ayumi spent much of her time attempting to "accidentally" hide in the same place as Conan.

Unfortunately for both girls, Haibara had been dragged into the game by none other than Conan. "To keep anything from happening," he had explained to her, not quite daring to define "anything".

Somehow this resulted in the three of them being crammed in a small shed during a hurricane. Mayhem ensued.

#07 – Wings  
He handed her the pendant even as he guarded her from the building collapsing around them. Surprised by both actions, Haibara glanced up at him from the object in her hands, her expression quizzical.

"A bird," he said without his usual, roundabout preamble. "To remind Shiho that she's free…and that I am."

The woman said nothing in response: a glance towards one of his hands told her everything. She put the pendant in a pocket silently, gave him a curt nod in thanks as they turned to step gingerly through the rubble, and very carefully thought about nothing.

All the way to the airport.

#08 – Cold  
As she trudged through the snow with bare feet, Shiho had just enough time to wonder if after making it all the way out here she was going to freeze to death. And then the gunshots cut off further thought for a while.

Frozen, feverish, and wounded, Sherry glared up at Gin, thinking, _Wonderful. So I'm not going to die of the cold. He – and through him, the Black Organization – is going to kill me. Avoiding this very situation is why I took the APTX-4869 last time. But right now…there's nothing I can do._

Finishing that last sentence was far harder than staring down the barrel of a gun and looking unafraid. After all, if there was one thing she hated more than anything else, it was being helpless.

But she couldn't move.

#09 – Red  
She woke up gasping again, with the sound of Gin's laughter ringing in her ears. It was the same dream she'd told Kudo about in the hotel – the one that had been haunting her lately.

Glancing up at the clock, she noted the 'late' time, then realized that her new alarm clock's display was - "_Like your favorite color of rose, Sherry: blood red." _

She grimaced at the sudden memory, thinking bitterly that she should never have mentioned that little fact. But she hadn't told anyone, really – Gin had just caught her admiring a garden one day in Europe. Later he managed to find out that she wasn't admiring the flowers but the deep color of their petals…she still didn't know how.

Well, it no longer mattered. The petals had been red, of course – _blood_ red – a color she was now thoroughly sick of. Why had she…?

Haibara shook her head to clear it, her breathing steady now, and turned to go back to sleep. That was when Kudo barged into her room, grabbed her hand, and dragged her off to the roof without a word.

She never did understand how he found out.

#10 – Drink  
He was out with Ran again, on something that would be a date if he sounded ten years older and wasn't nearly as short. She had a sudden mental image of Ran finding out and then dating the shrunken Kudo anyway; and she fought the rare urge to laugh.

Of course, there was no trace of a grin on her face as she continued the train of thought: it was her fault.

That's what it all came back to, really. Her fault that who-knows-how-many people had been killed, her fault that Kudo's life was tearing itself apart, her fault that Ran had lost her knight in shining armor…

_My fault, _thought Haibara as she left the lab and walked into the kitchen to find Agasa's "secret" stash, _that this body can't handle _alcohol_ at all. Any type._

#11 – Midnight  
"…Hey."

No words were spoken in answer, but a vaguely questioning noise came from the middle of the room.

The speaker sighed, then walked over and sat down - there was plenty of room on the couch, considering their size. Or lack thereof.

"C'mon, I know you're still awake. At least look at me. You don't have to say anything, just listen…I won't take long."

A pause, a turn. They faced each other; realized simultaneously that here was someone who would listen, would understand. And then one started talking, telling into the blackness of midnight that which could not be faced in the day.

A finish, a pause. Comfortable silence fell between them.

Then from the yet quiet one came a soft, "…Hey."

#12 – Temptation  
The capsule was sitting innocently enough on the table. It wasn't about to fall off, it wasn't glowing, it wasn't painted an evil or odd color…but it was _right next_ to the trash can. And that alone was enough to make her stare at it for all of twenty minutes, thinking. Weighing the options.

If she gave it to him, he might die. If she didn't, he might die. Both options sat on her chest like stones, and she was drowning…It would be so easy to destroy it. To pretend it never happened, to save herself from the choice and its consequences.

But then, throwing it out would be a choice, too, one she couldn't afford to make. Wrong. It was one she could very well afford to make, and would love to make. But the world and the people in it couldn't afford it for her, and she couldn't be selfish. She had been raised right, after all. Twice.

She sighed, smirked humorlessly, and made her choice.

#13 – View  
They'd made a habit of watching the sunrise and sunset together: since both had trouble sleeping, especially lately, they were both generally awake at the appropriate times anyway. In the rare case when one of them was asleep, the other would generally let them be…only to be joined before the spectacle was over.

There was nothing formal or romantic about it, and they never said anything to each other during those times, formal, romantic, or otherwise…Except once. And neither was entirely too sure what to do about that 'once.'

They were even more confused, when "once" became "twice".

Third time's the charm.

#14 – Music  
It was Christmas, and he was so lost it would have been hilarious…if he could find a gram of humor left in his panicked mind. Ayumi, Genta, Mitsuhiko…they were kids. Easy. Candy, chocolate, Yaiba, whatever. If it came in a brightly-colored package, he was pretty much good to go.

But what, exactly, do you buy for a nine-year-old teenage scientist who had worked for one of the largest underground syndicates in the world for most of her life? Not only that, said scientist was one of the hardest people to read he'd ever met, and that was saying plenty. Even blaming the problem on her being female wouldn't cut it – she was an _actress_, for crying out loud, if an undiscovered one. Hopefully.

_Great_, he thought, _a subtle pun. Very funny. But none of this is helping me find a present for her. I've been observing her for about a _week_; you'd think there'd be _something_…_

His thoughts trailed off as a pleasant sound floated through the otherwise quiet house: a sad melody, but a beautiful one.

_Aha._

#15 – Silk  
He had no excuse. He was a detective, formerly a famous high-school detective who had heard every alibi in the book, and currently a master of lies. And still he had no excuse.

Conan – no, Kudo in mind, heart, and this house – was sitting at the kitchen table, watching Haibara prepare dinner. Ran was out with some friends and the old man was dead drunk (oh, how he wished that phrase was literal), so he had come over to the Professor's house to eat. Only to find that Agasa was out of town.

And so it came to pass that Kudo Shinichi was sitting at a kitchen table, watching Haibara prepare dinner, and wondering wh…He was _not_ going to repeat the stupid thought.

(Notes)  
- In number nine, I assume that Kudo has come to Agasa's house, and that Haibara now has her own bedroom. Both are logical results of the lack of an antidote…now I just have to figure out when Kudo got brave enough to do something like that. Artistic license? Yeah…right. Well, it's probably been a couple years, so he's known her much longer. And it's fair to say that a few years of peace would prevent her from killing him on sight. Now that that's all explained, I need to figure out why Gin and Shiho were in Europe. Err…umm…A mission?

(Closing A/N) Can someone explain to me how the note is exactly 100 words long, when none of the drabbles are? …No? Well, whatever.

I'm not sure if all of the 1sentences will be expanded, but there's a pretty good chance I will write them all, if only in an excess of boredom. We'll see. Just to motivate you to press the little blue button down there: these drabbles depend on reviews. So. Tell me which ones you'd like to see expanded, name any you think are fine as they are, inform me that I'm a horrible writer and should stop at once…I'll take it all into account.

Also, at the end I'll write ten extra drabbles to make it even – after all, batches of fifteen don't match fifty total. All of you reviewers get to have a say as to what those are: give me a prompt, and you might see it turn into a drabble. And, of course, appropriate credit will be given.

By the way, for the sake of profundity, most drabbles will include almost as little concrete information as their 1sentence counterparts. If you dislike that, feel free to expand one or both into a full-fledged one shot or story and shape it as you will. I just ask that you quote the drabble and/or 1sentence you're expanding somewhere in your fic.


	2. File 2

(A/N) Second set.

Disclaimer: see File 1

1sentence Drabbles

#16 – Cover  
He'd been trying to get her to read something other than magazines and science texts lately. Neither of them knew why, but it made for good argument material, so neither was complaining. Of course, there was the minor problem that their arguments often went on in the presence of the other Detective Boys…who were insatiably curious about every tidbit of information the two dropped. And since one or both of them occasionally became so involved that they didn't pay enough attention to what they were saying…

"Haibara! You can't be serious! All you read are magazines about the type of fashion that no longer applies to you, and thick, complicated books that're supposed to help you make the anti-mmph!"

"Baka."

#17 – Promise  
Kaito Kid had been teaching her a few tricks lately, as requested - she'd thought something like this might happen. After all, Kudo could hardly demand that she stay behind, since she had more of a stake in this raid than anyone. So it was natural that he'd want to leave it to chance in the hopes of making her agree that way. Shiho kept promises, after all. And a small chance of her staying behind (and safe) was better than no chance at all.

She knew he'd think that way, because she knew him - and because she'd do the same thing, in his shoes. Accordingly she'd come prepared, with the help of a certain young magician. A two-headed coin, a stacked deck, janken mind tricks…she was ready.

And yes, she was that determined. This was just like the Haido City Hotel case: it was her fault anyway, and she was _not_ letting him go alone.

#18 – Dream  
It seemed that by telling him about the dream, she had passed it on like a virus. Now it had begun to haunt him, as well. The first casualty of this unfortunate circumstance was his health, of course. The next was far worse: his confidence.

He had always believed that they would make it through. The Black Organization would be brought down, an antidote would be made, and he could go back to his old life…and to Ran.

However, one can only live through absolute failure once or twice before one begins to doubt. So many times had he seen them kill Ran, Agasa, the three kids, and everyone else that he had begun to wake up in the morning believing that it was all over: they were dead.

"Kudo?" asked someone on the other end who was very much alive, "Why are you calling at the crack of dawn?"

#19 – Candle  
"Who taught you how to do all this?" he asked suddenly. They had never talked about such personal matters before, and certainly never about her past. But there was something intimate about the light of a single candle, and watching her move expertly around the lab had made him curious in spite of himself.

Apparently she was in a good mood, for instead of blowing him off, Haibara replied civilly enough, "My parents, until they were killed. Then I taught myself."

"For the sake of your sister?" He didn't sound pitying, or melodramatically sympathetic. It was just a question, and the answer…

"Yes."

…was just an answer.

#20 – Talent  
Sometimes she was grateful for the skill which had kept her (and her sister) alive. Sometimes she loathed it for what it had done to her life. And sometimes, as she worked tirelessly in the lab to create an antidote for the only person she'd ever met who had a shot at finally bringing down the Black Organization, sometimes she wondered what she would do with it after everything was over.

And then she laughed at her momentary lapse of sense – for her talent was in the lab, not in being an agent, and there was no guarantee that there would be an "after," especially if she went to stop them. But she would go to stop the syndicate regardless, because she wanted to see it fall with her own eyes; because she wanted to make it fall with her own hands. Yes, she would be there. So would they. None of them would leave alive.

Why should Sherry worry about what to do with the rest of her life, if the only "rest" she would get was eternal?

#21 – Silence  
"So, what are you doing?"

"Nothing much."

"You have a magazine in front of you, a TV on behind the magazine, and yet you are neither reading nor watching."

"The TV is muted."

"And that's important because…?"

"I was enjoying the sound of silence."

"…"

#22 – Journey  
If she didn't begin, she'd never finish. Still, it was hard to take the first step, given that either or both of them might never come out of that distinctly average building. Shinichi was in charge of his own life, she knew, and she had no qualms about death. After all, she had lived with it for her entire life, and had lived with the threat of it for her entire _second_ life.

And yet…

She was never to finish that thought, because at that moment Kudo pushed her gently toward the building. Not hard enough to make her move, but enough to remind her…Well, enough to remind her why she was going along with this insanity. So she moved to start down the path towards the beginning of the end, and he joined her.

Together they stepped off a sidewalk which had never before been quite as symbolic.

#23 – Fire  
He needed, he wanted, he must, he could, he would…she was tired of hearing it. He did not need to see Ran, he should not want anything except to live, the only thing he must do was not die, he could not hide from the Organization forever, and he would ignore all of those 'rules' and get himself killed if she didn't keep him from doing so.

She sighed quietly into the silence that had finally fallen, and the fire died from his eyes at the sound.

_Why do we do this to ourselves?_ they wondered suddenly, each holding in tears of pain and frustration. And then they looked at the glass of water on the table, where they found their answer.

The antidote, after all, could not be swallowed alone.

#24 – Strength  
She had gotten her body back. He had gotten his body back. She had lost her life again. He was about to lose his for the first time. He had taken the lives of people who took lives by putting them in jail. She would to take his in a far more permanent manner.

She would go unpunished except by his death.

_Convoluted and senseless, yet straightforward and reasonable - just like the rest of our relationship. How ironic._

And a small smile went invisible in the darkness of the back seat. A small, humorless smile. The smile of a murderer; the smile of the weak.

#25 – Mask  
It was interesting that those closest to someone should be able to see behind the person's mask – and that "those closest" would want to. After all, were not pain and sorrow hidden behind that mask; and secreted there did not silent tears fall?

They were; they did.

And yet she had forgotten something, or rather never learned it. She was learning now, belatedly, as Kudo truly smiled at her for the first time. It was a real smile: the fragile kind which can only exist behind a mask.

#26 – Ice  
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

At the sound, every student and teacher in a hundred-meter radius jerked to attention, only to stare in mixed shock and bemusement at the sight that greeted them.

_Conan_, the most mature and distinguished boy in the school, running away from a girl while screaming at the top of his lungs. Not only that, said girl was _Haibara_.

"IF I HAD A GUN RIGHT NOW...!"

"AT LEAST YOU CAN'T KILL ME BARE-HANDED!"

"OH, YES I CAN!"

"EEP!"

Despite the commotion, none of the students intervened or joined, and none of the teachers tried to stop the two. Both parties were rewarded by waiting: somewhere along the line, Conan began to laugh, and a small but brilliant smile appeared on Haibara's face.

#27 – Fall  
He had asked her to meet him somewhere: a date in honor of their "triumphant return." She replied that she had nowhere to return to; how could she do so triumphantly? And then to her shock he had actually laughed, and told her that there was plenty of space at his house, if she was interested.

Naturally she asked of both propositions the obligatory, "What would Ran punch you through?"; but his reply further startled the usually unshakable gi- no, woman: "She has a boyfriend, and he's not such a bad guy."

#28 – Forgotten  
He didn't remember.

_Of course he doesn't, you idiot; you made sure of that much, at least._

And yet…he didn't remember.

The sheer enormity of the concept had yet to fully sink in; but the thought was beginning to suffocate her, so it had definitely started to do so.

He no longer knew her name, her face, her age, her voice, her personality, her thought process, her quirks, her preferences, her hopes, her dreams, her fears…

Her identities.

#29 – Dance  
"No," she said flatly. It was the try-to-force-me-and-someone-_will_-get-hurt tone of voice she rarely used. Unfortunately for her, it only worked on three of them. The fourth merely grinned at the (carefully hidden, but he had known her for quite a while now) look on her face, and grabbed her hand.

Even though she didn't look particularly happy about it, she wasn't actively resisting - in other words, he was still alive. That had to mean something, right? He hoped so.

"C'mon, Shiho, it's not that bad."

The whisper, of course, prompted an incredulous what-are-you-high-on-this-time look, which he carefully ignored (it was sherry).

Then the music started, and they danced.

#30 – Body  
No connections, no regrets, no connections, no regrets, no connections, no regrets…

When her sister had died, they hadn't let her attend the funeral. In fact, she wasn't sure there had _been_ a funeral. It was a cold, heartless thing to do, not letting her say goodbye. But for the first time in her life, she was grateful to them for it.

After all, in their heartlessness they had spared her the pain she was experiencing now.

(Closing A/N) I've gone over this one several times, altered some things, just barely restrained myself from rewriting some (extra work, you see), and I _still_ don't like it. Whatever.


	3. File 3

(A/N) FS, this one's entirely your fault.

…But I suppose that's a dedication instead of a reprimand. Hm.

Well, as some of you have probably figured out from the summary, I have halted 1sentence Drabbles. I don't know when – or if – I'll pick them up again. Probably never, especially if I don't get anyone asking me to continue.

Either way, this is my next project: dictionary drabbles. A-Z, one drabble for each prompt, one prompt per letter.

**Directions for assignment: 1) Fill in the blank. 2) Never ask again.**

Disclaimer: ____________________

Dictionary Drabbles

#01 – Alibi  
There was nothing he could do. Not only was the fingerprint evidence clear, they had DNA samples, a scratchy audio tape courtesy of Gin's paranoia, and an eyewitness. Who was the eyewitness? A little boy named Edogawa Conan, of course. And his word could be trusted because he had worked with the police before, he was part of the Detective Boys, he…

Kudo Shinichi nodded understandingly as all of this was explained to him, refraining from mentioning that he knew Conan very (_very_) well, and tried not to cry as Shiho was jailed for saving his life.

But she smirked at him as she went by, and baffled the onlookers when she told the famous detective, "I finally gave you your life back, so don't screw it up. Again."

#02 – Breach  
His cell phone rang in class, and he answered it despite the teacher's disapproving frown. It was, after all, the phone reserved for emergencies. Very few people had the number, and even they very rarely called it.

But he answered normally enough, hoping it wasn't _that_ bad. Then his face went white, because it was "_that_ bad," and in a spectacular demonstration of how _not_ to hide emotion, he dropped the phone. Haibara, who sat next to him of course, caught it.

"Repeat what you just said."

There was a pause, and then she said softly, "Sherry."

Another pause, this time longer.

And then, to the further astonishment of the already shocked class, she too went white and dropped the phone. This time no one caught it.

#03 – Conflict  
If Akemi had been reborn, her name would have been Ran. Of course, even if reincarnation did happen, the ages were wrong. Shiho knew that. Still, it didn't stop her from becoming protective of Ran – or more specifically, of the "sister-who-had-not-died."

It was odd, this situation. Shiho was older than Ran, yet had the body of an eight-year-old, which further reinforced the association. She had looked up the same distance into similar eyes before, and had beheld a similar smile from afar. She had wished happiness upon a similar person before, and she wished it upon this one, too.

And yet some part of her couldn't help hating Ran, because it wasn't fair that Akemi should have to die while this innocent went untouched, because it wasn't right that Ran should try to take her sister's place, even unconsciously, and because…but the last reason was unthinkable.

#04 – Decide  
Both of them had to choose, and neither could. They were standing face to face, staring at each other; trying to read the look in the other's eyes and trying to figure out what the look in their own must be. After a minute or two of this, Ran walked in saying something about making them dinner because Agasa was away; and they both stared at her with such strange looks in their eyes that she quickly became confused by their silence and suspicious of their ages.

The moment was broken when the two teenaged children simultaneously closed their eyes, lowered their heads, and sighed. They turned to face each other again, but their synchronization ended when one said, "Go," just as the other said, "Stay."

Again they sighed.

Glancing up at Ran and correctly interpreting the look on her face, Haibara smiled (she'd gone with the Childish Cuteness flavor, Conan noted absently) and explained, "We were just deciding whether or not to go to Tropical Land."

#05 – Explosion  
They stood completely still and silent as the building collapsed, all of them. It wasn't until every stone had fallen off of every other stone and nothing so much as twitched in the ensuing silence that the ragged group let out a spontaneous cheer and started to disperse.

Ten minutes later, only two of them were still standing there; but that made sense since these two happened to be the most involved. Their names were Shinichi and Shiho, and neither would respond to those names for a good while yet.

"So, Ai," started one, just as the other started, "So, Conan."

There was a pregnant pause, and then the two finished in unison, grinning at each other: "Now what?"

#06 – Fragile  
"They're so pretty," said Ayumi as she watched the floating bubbles.

Haibara, sitting next to her, merely deadpanned. When she didn't reply, the other three looked at her oddly: a comment like this was usually her cue to make some biting remark.

They held their breath as she put a hand out, for surely she was about to pop one as a nonverbal comment. However, she merely let one of the bubbles land on her palm and then drew her arm back, gazing at the small, transparent thing with an expression still unreadable.

They breathed again.

"But so fragile," she said, and curled her fingers. Again they held their breath, hoping desperately that she wasn't destroying it; but after a second or two she uncurled her fingers, and the bubble was gone.

"You popped it, didn't you?" they asked in the injured tones of disappointed children. She could be so cold sometimes, each of them thought privately; and again they expected a biting remark.

However, her lips curled into the enigmatic, not-quite-smirk she often wore when speaking of things they didn't understand, and she replied, "Quite the opposite."

#07 – Gold  
In the early days of the so-called "investigation," he had asked her with the pretense of a joke, "I suppose what they're after is to create the Stone of legend, and use one of its properties to turn lead into-"

He stopped mid-sentence when she shook her head, the ghost of a smile on her face.

"Close," was all she said at the time.

#08 – Helium  
"I don't know what you're laughing at," he said with an affected air of affront.

The effect of his tone was somewhat marred by the fact that he was grinning…and the fact that his tone was an octave or two higher than usual.

As the other three kids rolled around on the floor, gasping with laughter, Haibara didn't even twitch.

"They're laughing at _that_."

And only when _her_ voice came out incredibly high did she give into the urge to join them.

#09 – Impediment  
"Move."

"No."

"Move."

"No."

A pause.

"If you don't get out of my way _right now_, I'm going to have to resort to drastic measures."

"Try it."

And suddenly his back was pressed against the wall as she kissed him. In the meantime her hand reached over and opened the door; and then she abruptly broke off the kiss, sped through, and closed it again, facing her lab and its contents as she locked the door behind her.

He almost missed the mischievous grin on her face in the rush.

#10 – Joke  
"Will you marry me?"

There was a pause while she looked incredulously at him. They had several well-trained syndicate members on their tail, they were in dire peril, they…was he _insane_? Apparently her thoughts were reflected on her face, for his sudden sheepish look was replaced by an equally sudden mask of jocularity.

"I was just k-" he started, only to be cut off.

"Don't you _dare_," she said, reaching over to pluck the small box from his grasp.

#11 – Kids  
"If you got married, would you want kids?"

The question was sudden and completely unexpected, but she kept her composure and gave him a calm (if slightly biting) reply: "I see enough of them as it is. What, are you trying to envision your future with Ran after the antidote is made?"

He looked up quickly, startled by the question and her use of the name, and responded without thinking, "No, I'm trying to envision my future wi-" Conan clamped a hand over his mouth, spun around, and exited the room at breakneck speed, leaving Haibara trying to decide whether to laugh or cry.

Ultimately she decided to do neither, and went back to making dinner, returning also to her previous train of thought, which revolved around swearing violently but silently at the stupid apron Agasa was making her wear.

#12 – Labor  
They pushed themselves too hard, both of them; always thinking that they'd take a break after the next case, the next string of chemicals. "Just one more minute," they'd convince themselves, until the minutes piled up and became hours and it was like eating peanuts or popcorn and they found that they'd gone another day without sleep.

But that was okay; because to stop working was to start thinking, and to sleep was to dream.

#13 – Milestone  
"We're both idiots," she told him matter-of-factly, not bothering to lower her already soft voice. He merely nodded.

The two of them had lived so long by marking squares off the calendar that they'd forgotten those squares had numbers, which were _days_; and that the boxes they'd scratched off hurriedly were beginning to constitute quite a long time. Long enough for Sonoko to get married, for Ran to find a new boyfriend, for Mitsuhiko to attend law school, for Genta to become a chef, for Ayumi to…well, to approach the certain pathway she would shortly be walking down

The music started on cue, and the girl-turned-woman moved forward with a brilliant smile marred only by her searching gaze. She was looking for two of her best friends – one in particular. But neither seemed to be here, and she was deeply hurt though she hid it well.

Unbeknownst to her, they had in fact shown up. Literally, _up_.

High in the rafters lurked two small shadows.

(Closing A/N) Some of those sappy (by my standards, anyway) ones in the middle were the product of…insanity and coffee, I think. And maybe a good mood, if I really felt like admitting it. But I don't. Hopefully no one gagged, or died, or something equally unpleasant. :rereads:gags:dies:

Edit: I have a question. These drabbles look a bit crammed to me, so I've been experimenting with spacing. This site's strange formatting rules don't allow extra spaces, and I don't want to use lines made of characters. Putting good old HTML lines between each drabble (take a look at the grey lines in my profile to see what I'm talking about if you don't know) might help, but then it might not. What do all of you think?


	4. File 4

(A/N) There wasn't a fixed length for these, as far as I know, but usually drabbles are 100 words. At least one of these is over three times that length, several are (more or less) twice that length, and one or two are _under_ 100. :sweatdrops: Oops?

Oh, well. I did a decent job of keeping them between one- and two-hundred, and that's good enough for me.

Disclaimer: See File 1

Dictionary Drabbles

#14 - Nuance  
They had learned to read each others' minds.

This twitch meant that she was hiding something; that movement meant that he still had something to say. This tone of voice meant that he'd better scram before she decided to dissect him; that expression on his face meant that he was on to something. This look in her eyes meant that she was mocking him without words; that twist of his mouth meant he was in pain.

They finished each others' sentences without conscious thought; they came to assume that every sentence need only be started. They made the same facial expressions in response to questions and comments directed at both of them; it got the point where they didn't need to exchange glances to know what look would be on the other's face or in the other's eyes.

Eventually the two started wondering if even their unconscious bodily functions were linked; and both began to suspect that if one died, the other's heart would stop beating as well.

#15 – Overt  
The two not-children were talking calmly in complete privacy, until a topic was mentioned that should not have been. The calm talking quickly turned into a shouting match, which dissolved into something resembling a fight, and then one of them was saying something the other never expected to hear. The latter replied in kind.

In the pause that followed their mutual confession, there was absolute silence. A half-smile was apparent on Haibara's face where she had forgotten to wipe it off, and an unusual gleam of happiness lurked in Conan's eyes.

They stared at each other for a while, enjoying the moment, and then the silence was broken by a voice laced with humor: "…This is the part where one of us says, 'Just kidding,' isn't it?"

#16 – Popular  
She almost fidgeted. She _never _fidgeted.

But then, since the attention of an entire class her age was fixed upon her, the hastily suppressed motion was understandable.

Clearing his throat abruptly, and failing to draw anyone's attention, Shinichi nevertheless said into the completely silent room, "This is Miyano Shiho. She's a transfer student from America, and she'll be joining our class for a while."

Forgetting her position – and its accompanying awkwardness - for a minute, the aforementioned lifted an eyebrow at him.

"For a while?" she asked, somewhat surprised at the addition. After all, they had agreed that she'd be staying…

He smirked in reply. "Until you get thoroughly sick of this lot," he made a sweeping gesture with his right hand, encompassing the room, "and me."

"But I'm already sick of you."

A mock hurt expression on his face matched the mock disgusted one on hers, and they bantered back and forth as they started towards his seat – and the empty one beside it. Still trading insults as the class looked on and the teacher was conspicuously absent, they sat down.

There was a brief pause while they turned to attend to their books…and then the class swarmed them.

#17 – Quirk  
He had this unconscious habit of posing whenever a camera was near that was both amusing and irritating in nearly equal parts. Most of the time. Right about now, it was just irritating.

"What do you think you're doing?" she whispered softly, careful to keep her expression neutral.

He gave her a classic cocky smirk, then leaned closer to speak softly by her ear: "Don't look now, but the murderer has a camera and is scoping the place out through the viewfinder. Since this particular path happens to be in a certain area of town, and since we happen to be a young man and a young woman, we'd look suspicious if we weren't doing anything."

She didn't answer, choosing instead to eye the arm propping him against the tree at her back as if it had violated a crime. At the next thing he said, though, she forgot all about it.

"Unless you'd rather we kissed?"

His voice was dead serious. It wasn't until her head snapped up and her eyes met his that she saw the tell-tale twinkle which meant he was joking.

Irritating. Yeah. All she had to do was keep repeating the word in her head, and-

#18 – Rest  
"Shinichi?"

He blinked unfocused eyes and stared at the ceiling without seeing it. Since there was a distinct absence of pain, bindings, and a threatening weapon, he surmised that they had gotten out alive. That was good…

"Shinichi?"

But the person who was calling him couldn't be Sh-Miyano, because they never referred to each other by first name, even under life-threatening circumstances.

"Shinichi?"

Slowly he turned his head. His eyes, now clear, met the blurry ones of his watcher.

Oh.

#19 – Story  
"…Kudo."

The monotone broke his concentration, and he looked up from his Sherlock Holmes novel. He wasn't really annoyed, because the book in his hands had merely been a distraction from the peaceful, utterly quiet house, but there was still slight irritation in his voice as he replied, "Hm?"

"You've heard the story about Theseus and the minotaur before, right?"

He lifted an eyebrow at the unusual question, and was even more surprised at the tone of her voice. Now curious, he put aside his book and answered, "Yes, though I haven't exactly memorized it. Why?"

"Theseus was given a ball of thread and a magical sword before he entered the labyrinth. The sword helped him slay the minotaur; the thread helped him find his way back. However, if he had been injured during the fight, he would have died. Thread and swords can't bind wounds."

She stopped. He stared. That was more than Haibara had said in the past _month_, easily.

Was she…?

#20 – Torture  
"Sounds tortured, doesn't it?"

"Almost as tortured as my ears are from listening to it," she replied automatically. Then she took a good look at the speaker and did a credible job of masking surprise.

"Isn't that you?"

"Recording," he informed her with perfect equanimity. "I dug it up expressly for this case."

"Sure," she replied, voice absolutely coated with sarcasm, "That's why it sounds like a tape from karaoke night. Heiji blackmailed you, didn't he?"

He winced, and she was fairly certain it wasn't just at the awful squawking. But though she seemed to have hit the nail on the head, he carefully dodged all inquiries as to what the blackmail had been about.

21 – Universal  
"This stupid thing refuses to work," Conan just barely refrained from whining.

In a house with two genius scientists, was it too much to ask for the _television's remote control_ to actually turn on the TV? Apparently it was.

Then again, since said control was a prototype invention of Agasa's, and had yet to be perfected, perhaps that was understandable. Still, since Agasa had claimed that it was good enough for now and could be finished later (he'd gotten sidetracked by a cool new toy he was tinkering with, in other words), they'd thrown out the old remote. There was no power button on the set itself.

Since he really wanted to watch the news (not to see himself on TV, of course not), he'd taken it to the inventor to see if it could be finished _now_, instead of in a few months or when Agasa tired of the latest novelty, whichever was farther.

Unfortunately for him, the inventor's lab was empty.

Then from behind him, a voice said, "Kudo."

He turned.

She pointed at a nearby fan, which was spinning lazily. There was a smirk on her face.

"It's a universal remote."

#22 – Viewpoint  
A good detective learned how to look at things from multiple points of view during a case. A _great _detective always looked at things from multiple points of view. Accordingly, one day Shinichi decided to live up to his title, calm down about the things that gave him the most stress, and run a viewpoint exercise. The result of this experiment was as follows:

First, said detective holed himself up in his room for a good twelve hours.

Following this, he approached a certain small scientist and informed her with absolutely no warning or preface, "If you hadn't made the drug, Gin probably would've shot me that day. Instead, thanks to you, I'm alive."

"…If vertically challenged," the scientist added coolly after a pause while his words sunk in. There was the barest hint of a smile upon her face, which was unacceptable because it was a crack in the mask which cannot, under any circumstances, be cracked. Or else.

About half an hour and a conversation later, Kudo left the area, presumably to stumble over another body on his way back to his current living quarters.

After he was out of sight, I wrote this nonsense.

#23 – Water  
H20. HOH. Dihydrogen monoxide. Hydrogen oxide. A very simple molecule.

And yet this simple molecule was necessary to humans' survival. After all, most of the human body was made of water, and without it they had an unfortunate tendency to shrivel up and blow away at the whim of a passing breeze.

It was yet another weakness. Humans were full of weaknesses, it seemed. Dehydration, starvation, temperature-related problems, pressure-related problems, hereditary conditions, diseases, drugs, hallucinations, lapses of attention…

"Haibara?"

I looked up.

"I know it's late, but glasses of water really aren't _that_ interesting, surely?"

I blinked.

When had it gotten that close? More importantly, when had _he_?

#24 – X  
"Twenty paces from the old shed, and…It should be here," someone muttered.

It was a familiar voice, but one she was more accustomed to hearing at the crime scene, instead of in the crime scene's backyard – literally. She stepped around some dense foliage just in time to see a strange sight: Conan was attempting to use a shovel meant for someone much his senior in size and strength.

Haibara snickered. At the sound, he turned around almost guiltily.

"What are you doing?" she asked. Not that she was curious, mind, it was just something to do while three kids and a grown-up kid in a suit ran around finding 'evidence' and making false accusations much too soon, while an exasperated teenager tried to control them. And failed.

But the two of them had slipped out of the client's house unnoticed, one for some fresh air, and the other…

He started in on a long explanation that had to do with a letter, a bottle, and fifty years of unnecessary pain for two different people and their families. Ten minutes later, he had outlined the entire case, solved it, and told her the story behind it. Now, one of the families had recently uncovered a scrap of aged paper in their attic that looked rather like a treasure map. The only problem was that it was in code. Conan had cracked that code.

"…And so," he concluded, "the evidence should be buried here."

"Why don't you just get an adult to help you?"

"They won't believe me. But you know I'm Kudo Shinichi, so…" He trailed off, looking at her hopefully.

"Just because I know you're Kudo doesn't mean I'll believe you..."

The shrunken detective sighed.

"…especially since I never knew Kudo. But I know Conan, and I'll believe him."

He blinked at her. She blinked back.

What?

#25 – Yes  
It was a tough decision.

On the one hand, if he went, he'd be leaving behind important things, things he would miss when they were gone. On the other hand, if he didn't, countless people could be killed or injured…or worse.

"Well?"

He struggled to make up his mind.

"It's not that difficult, Kudo."

He was still weighing the options.

"You can always tape the TV show, and if you don't go, who knows what the "Sleeping Detective" will do?"

He contemplated that.

"Now, are you coming to the party or not?"

"Yes."

"..."

#26 – Zymurgy  
"That's not a word and you can't convince me it is."

"It is a word."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is."

"Prove it."

He blinked as an open dictionary was unceremoniously shoved in his face, blinked again as he read the definition, then said brilliantly, "Oh."

She smirked and went back to totaling points, making sure to take into account the fact that she'd neatly covered one of those "Triple Word Score" spaces.

(Closing A/N) The game in the last drabble, for the uninitiated, is Scrabble. The rest should be fairly self-explanatory.


	5. File 5

(A/N) I'm going to dump all request drabbles and/or 1sentences into this file, so check in on it once in a while; you might find something new. Also, if you really want to see something and it's not here, either review or send me an e-mail.

Y'never know. I might be bored one day and whatever you send will be just what I'm looking for…

Rules for request submission:

First, let me know whether you'd like a drabble or a 1sentence. Second, I'll need a prompt and the name of one character at the very least. If you'd like to see more characters in the drabble/1sentence, that's fine, but I highly doubt that more than three characters will fit. And finally, don't give me a deadline. I'm likely to finish any requests within a week; if I don't and don't give a reason, feel free to send a message asking me why. Or demanding whatever-it-is _right now_. Just don't give me a deadline.

Requested Drabbles/1sentences

For Claude:

#01 (Birthday request) – Sequel to Dictionary Drabble "Alibi"  
Shinichi stared at her through the bars, and was rather surprised when she stared back. He had fully expected to be ignored since it was his fault she was in there.

"I'm sor-" he started, but Shiho shook her head.

He had a haggard look to him she never expected to see, there was a distinct lack of any ring upon his finger, his hair wasn't properly combed, and his clothing – though clean – didn't quite meet his former standards.

"I _told_ you," she said with some heat, "not to screw up your life again."

The detective shrugged with forced casualness.

"Ai took it away and Shiho gave it back. Conan took yours away; now it's my turn." Her expression was _priceless_, he noted absently as he continued, "Both of our lives are pretty much wrecked by now, wouldn't you say? We can fix them together once I get you out of here."

For Fredryck:

#01 - Ai, Kogoro, and a bottle of gin  
She was _not_ happy. For some strange reason, a little boy had seen fit to drag her from her nice, familiar lab into the bright lights of this stupid party. The Mouri household was crammed with people celebrating the (_temporary_, Ai inserted) return of…

Mouri Kogoro.

Of course, since it was a party for Kogoro, there was plenty of alcohol to go around – most of which found its way down the guest-of-honor's throat.

The result should be no surprise: Kogoro staggered over to the wall Ai was leaning against with a bottle in hand, went to open the bottle, and promptly passed out. The girl glanced over at him, then went back to rubbing her temples. The lights, noise, and heat were giving her a migraine; and it didn't help at all that she'd only had three hours of sleep the night before.

So she was surprised when the supposedly unconscious man spoke up: "This is a bottle of the stuff I was drinking when she left," he said clearly, holding up the bottle. Ai turned her head to stare at him, thinking she'd imagined it. But there he was, and the bottle – "Gin," she read aloud, and couldn't keep the hatred from seeping into her voice.

He chuckled softly, a strange sound from the man with the idiot laugh. "I knew it," he said. "No kid sounds like that, not even an incredibly mature one. You and Conan have encountered the Black Organization, haven't you?"

A long pause, and then she nodded slowly. If he knew, there was no point in keeping it a secret to him – and no one could hear them over the noise of the party. Besides, with any luck he wouldn't remember this when-"He," said Kogoro, cutting off her thoughts, "was the one who took Eri away from me."

And then she woke up.

For FS:

#01 - Ai, Watson, and a frying pan  
She had been trying to cook breakfast for some time now, and was failing miserably. It had nothing to do with her skills, and everything to do with an extremely irritating annoyance which was beginning to get on her nerves. In short, without his master around, Watson was a _pest_.

There was little Ai could do, since she had no control over the bird and wasn't much bigger than it besides. She wasn't surprised much by that fact, just as she hadn't been surprised when she was asked to "watch" the bird. What did surprise her was Watson's appetite.

For what had to be the fifth time, a new batch of eggs was cracked into a frying pan. She tossed the shells into a nearby trashcan casually, then glared up at the bird to make sure it wasn't moving. With any luck it was full by now. With _her_ luck, there would be a sixth time…

"Cannibal," she muttered.

For June:

#01 - Ai, Conan, and 'he gambled his life for hers'/'martyr'  
They had been arguing for at least the past ten minutes over who was going to be the first infiltrator of the B.O.'s headquarters. Eventually one of the FBI men with them snapped that if the two couldn't figure it out, they might try using _chance_…

"Okay, it all comes down to this. If the coin lands on heads, you go. If it lands on tails, I go."

It spun gently through the air, accompanied by the soft "ping!" which echoed slightly in the enclosed space. Time seemed to slow to a crawl; no one in the room so much as breathed. Their eyes followed it down, down, down, down…until it landed in a crack.

On its edge.

Later, as Conan lay dying of a gunshot wound, he reflected that it was probably a good thing the coin had landed that way, since he had finally paid off his debt to her.

Later, as Ai watched him dying of a gunshot wound, she reflected that she should've tied him up and stuffed him in a closet, coin be damned.

Too late now.

For SN:

#01 – Ai, Conan, and a car trunk  
"We're locked in," said a muffled voice.

"Joy."

Dead silence in the pitch black.

"We need to get out of here before I either kill you or suffocate."

"Or both."

"Or both."

More silence, as both of them tried to alter their breathing and conserve oxygen. However, their efforts were to no avail.

"They're dead," assumed someone when the search party finally found them later. He was busy trying to decide whether to cry or do a happy dance when his daughter interrupted.

"No they aren't," she turned to tell him after checking, then returned her gaze to the two sleeping 'children'. And squealed.

_They look so_ cute _like that_, she thought gleefully, and ran off through the snow to grab her forgotten camera-phone. Luckily for the two shrunken teenagers, they woke up before she returned.

Their first reaction, of course, was to spring apart as if burned.

For Tsu:

#01 - Kid, Ai, and a plane bathroom  
_In a world terrified by the threat of terrorists, KID suddenly decided to hijack a plane. A_ plane. _What could he possibly want with a plane? Not only that, he just happened to hijack_ this _plane, so we're going to be late…_Haibara sighed.

Fortunately for all passengers, the plane didn't take long to make an emergency touchdown in some abandoned field, and KID secured the jewel hidden in the nose of the plane (it wasn't the right one, Haibara noted with some amusement as she watched the white-caped figure absently through a window) speedily after it did.

When all the excitement was over, KID had flown off in his trademark, obnoxiously flashy hang glider, and the plane was back in the air, Haibara headed for the bathroom.

Where she promptly ran into KID.

Or rather, KID's 'alter ego.' Haibara was one of very few people who knew KID's true identity, and she had only found out by (rather strange and exceedingly hilarious in retrospect) accident.

"Gee," she said quietly to Kuroba Kaitou, who was just leaving, "I know the jewel wasn't the right one, but you didn't have to flush it down the _toilet_, now did you?"

He snickered appreciatively at the joke, and replied softly, "Let's just say that KID made an…unusual…escape today." Then, as was customary during meetings between the two, he pulled a flower from the air and handed it to her with an elaborate bow.

Haibara rolled it between two fingers pensively for a moment, before grinning wickedly up at him.

"I'm afraid I have nowhere to throw it away at the moment," and here she gestured to the enclosed space and sealed windows, "but I'm sure I can find a place for it."

Then she brushed past him and entered the bathroom, but not before catching the equally customary wounded look upon his face.

It was nice to have a reliable tradition, Haibara mused as the rose spun and whirled.

(Notes)  
- SN's includes more characters than it should, but I think I'm allowed to get away with a plot device or two, especially when said plot devices aren't named...Wait, "plot device"? _What_ plot?

- Tsu's is, of course, a not-so-very-subtle, three-times-the-normal-length tip-of-the-hat (overuse of hyphens and all) to "No Strings Attached".

(Closing A/N) To preempt hissy fits about 'ranking' and 'preferential treatment' and other such nonsense, the drabbles/1sentences are listed in alphabetical order by requester's screen name (or nickname). Hopefully that was obvious.


End file.
